LE

"Today South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited Takeshima. It is contrary to our nation's stance that Takeshima is historically - and under international law - an integral part of our national territory, and is completely unacceptable," he (Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda) said.

Except that they're not part of Japan under international law. Like the Diaoyu/Diaoyutai/Senkakus, there's never been an international settlement on ownership in favour of any disputing nation, only varying selective interpretations of history and maritime law coupled with a strong element of 'possession being 9/10ths of the law'. ROK occupies the Dokdo/Takeshima islands and has refused to take the question of ownership to international arbitration because they claim those are inalienable parts of Korea.

Most of the Japanese claims to these disputed islands originate in their post-Meiji Imperial expansions, so it's not hard to see why Korea get the shits up when they start pressing their claims home.

What was interesting was the Chinese delegation's choice of flags:

Apparently, they'd even approached the ROC Coastguard for an escort since ROC CG routinely escorts protesters from Taiwan around these islands while PLAN steadfastly refuses to get itself involved - doubtless for wider geopolitical reasons.

That's the crux of the whole 'disputed islands' issue. It isn't just about fishing rights or oil exploration - most of the participants are grown up enough to have entered into joint agreements - but about avoiding a precedent that Japan can 'believe' and be rewarded for that belief.

What a penetrating (oops) strategic military mind! Genius! Yes if the Isle of Wight is next the world would have trembled at ye olde Ark Royal coming to sort them out. Oh yes. Those pesky Japs and Chinese would not have dared. After all they remember how the Hood and The Repulse sorted them out long ago. Oh yes.

LE

Given that the Japs and Chinese, Japs and Koreans, Koreans and Chinese already have deals for joint exploration of disputed fields, I reckon it's not quite so simple. National pride, international rivalry, historic grievances and keeping the Sons of Nippon in their box have an enormous part to play.

If it's been sent from my HTC Sensation using Tapatalk then I'm probably pissed.

Old-Salt

This is all being taken quite seriously out there. I first thought that the organisations doing the occupying around and about might be government sponsored until I saw some beardy twat from Hong Kong, who is always on the TV demonstrating about almost anything, being escorted on a boat. Whilst the relevant governments are acting in a reasonably civilised manner the mutts are dragging it all into the public eye and forcing the issue.

If you look at the various claims you can see that China wants everything outside the 12 mile limits of every country around the South China Seas. Bit difficult as, as far as I am aware, most, if not all of it is uninhabited so geographical proximity must hold a higher value than saying that 'it has historically always been considered an integral part of China'. But they say that about Taiwan, too.

What may become an issue is the good old USA having exercises with the Philippines Navy around some of the disputed area. Probably a good job that the Brits don't have enough ships or we would get involved in another clusterfuck.

War Hero

These things are always 'taken seriously' in this part of the world, at least by the extremist fringe parties of no one else. Every time a Japanese Prime Minister visits Yasukuni the Chinese are up in arms about it. When the Japanese patrol ship clashed with the Chinese fishing boat there were demonstrations in Tokyo. Nationalism, especially in Japan, is far more prevalent in Asia than we would see in Europe. Most people - and I say this as someone living in HK and working with locals and also married to a Japanese - view the whole farce with as much disdain as the rest of the world does.

LE

As to their prediction of a close-run thing, I think that credits PLAN too highly. Apart from its own inherent weaknesses, the JSDF(N) is a slick, well-practiced and well-equipped outfit. Their technological superiority, coupled with the close intelligence links Japan enjoys with the US, would tell quite convincingly IMO.